I mean, isn't the purpose of bush trips to fly low and identify the landmarks described in the nav log?

I try hard, but in the end I always yield to the temptation of following that dam purple arrow.

Edited August 23, 20205 yr by MrFuzzy

Finding your way in "the bush" is not done by "landmarks" only in real life.

A GPS comes in real handy 🙂

A pilot who doesn't use all the tools at his disposal is a pilot who will find himself dead.

 

2 hours ago, MrFuzzy said:

I mean, isn't the purpose of bush trips to fly low and identify the landmarks described in the nav log?

I try hard, but in the end I always yield to the temptation of following that dam purple arrow.

Flying the bush and flying visual (pilotage, with map and chronometer) are two different things. You can fly the bush visual or with navaids including GPS on glass and auto-pilot.

Bush strips are not always easy to pick up in the landscape and flying to them can be dangerous in mountainous or hilly terrain. You have to carefully prepare the trip and then waypoints on glass are helpful. Years ago, I was very much the pilotage guy but I came to like my GTN 750 in my A2A aircraft. I even made a popup in good old Anushka too.

You could tell me there is something to say for getting lost in the wretched hills with fuel getting low 😉. I’d agree to a point. So the choice is yours. But no shame in using the GPS.  Situational awareness first .

For me, the heart of the bush experience is the approach, positioning and landing of a loaded aircraft on a short rough strip possibly with a cross- or tailwind with no Go Around possible (and subsequent takeoff of course). And THAT has to be done manually in any case.

Thanks for giving me real pilot's take on that... safety first!

1 hour ago, MrFuzzy said:

Thanks for giving me real pilot's take on that... safety first!

Fuzzy, my friend, I do not know for the others on this thread but I am not a real pilot. You may be too young to remember but there was that song in the 60s 'The Great Pretender' I'm the great pretender  Adrift in a world of my own  Thats me 😉.

I have been flying the virtual bush for years in the PNW, Alaska and Papua New Guinea and am an avid watcher of the few YouTubers doing the real bush. 

Most the bush commercial pilots use the Garmin now in their turboprops and I posted recently a YT where a bush leisure pilot, Trent Palmer,  was demonstrating his Garmin in his Cub. 

 

 

Edited August 23, 20205 yr by Dominique_K

If you really want to fly without the purple line, you can just leave your destination out of it and use the GPS for situational awareness. You dont need to plot a route if you dont want to 🙂